UNDER CONSTRUCTION — The exhibition archive is to give international visibility and accessibility to East European art events, and to enable cross-national research and comparisons. With the collaboration of international experts essential data of exhibitions and event series of key importance are collected and contextualized.

Participants and organizers: Gábor Altorjay, Tamás Szentjóby (with the cooperation of Miklós Jankovics and István Varannai, with the help of Enikő Balla, Miklós Erdély, and Csaba Koncz)

Location: The cellar of István Szenes, Budapest

The happening was organized in the cellar of a private house by Gábor Altorjay and Tamás Szentjóby.
There were about sixty viewers. In addition to a short film and several photographs there are three detailed written descriptions of the happening: a review of the happening published by László Kamondy in the weekly magazine, Tükör; the recollections of Gábor Altorjay published two years later as an appendix to the article by Ottó Tolnai entitled “On the Newest Hungarian Poetry” in the Novi Sad Hungarian language magazine New Symposium; and a secret police report also written in 1968. All three texts differ at points regarding how and what happened, and what sense it made.

Page from the exhibition catalog. Photo of Lajos Kassák. Caption: “I have been constructing myself for eighty years.” (from the catalog)

Poster of the exhibition.

Victor Vasarely’s letter to Kassák (from the catalog)

The opening of the exhibition, with Máté Major, János Frank, and Lajos Kassák in the photo. Photo: Géza Szebellédy (courtesy of Kassák Múzeum)

The opening of the exhibition, the audience. Photo: Géza Szebellédy (courtesy of Kassák Múzeum)

Pages showing the documents of the exhibition from the catalog The sixties – New Trends in Hungarian Visual Art, 1991, Hungarian National Gallery.

Date: 03 March 1967

Participant:Lajos Kassák (1887-1967)

Opening by:Máté Major (1904-1986, architect, editor)

Location: Adolf Fényes Hall, Budapest

The occasion for this exhibition was the 80th birthday of the artist,who since 1949, was hardly able to get official permission to exhibit his abstract works in Hungary. The Adolf Fényes Hall was an exhibition space offered for self-financed shows that were not funded by the state – as all other public exhibitions – but by the artists themselves. The author of the text, Ferenc Csaplár (1940-2007), was the director of the Kassák Múzeum from its foundation in 1976 until 2007. This article was written on the occasionof an exhibition with the same title.

Tamás Szentjóby planned an exhibition entitled “Donor” in July 1968, in the Iparterv State Architectural Office, but it was cancelled after the invitation leaflet was printed and distributed. Three months later and three weeks before the famous first Iparterv exhibition he organized actions entitled “Do You See What I See” in the same location with Miklós Erdély and László Méhes. In the “Iparterv 68-80″ catalog issued in 1980 Erdély described these actions as his connection to the Iparterv group.

The hall of the Iparterv Office was not used regularly for exhibitions and the shows were open only for a few days. The first famous group show presenting the “first generation of the neo-avantgarde” in 1968 was accompanied by a small catalog containing a short introduction by the curator, Péter Sinkovits and the reproduction of the works and the CVs of the participants.

In 1969 four more artists, András Baranyay, László Méhes, János Major, and Tamás Szentjóby accepted Sinkovits’ invitation. A year later a catalog was printed illegally in the printing house of the Iparterv Office with a slightly different list of artists (Tamás Szentjóby and Sándor Molnár was left out, Miklós Erdély and Attila Pálfalusi included).

In 1980 a commemorating exhibition was initiated by art historian László Beke (1944) and Lóránd Hegyi (1954). On this occasion a comprehensive English-Hungarian publication was issued containing several studies and also documents of the previous exhibitions in addition to the works of the participants. Finally, shortly before the Regime Change, in December 1988 a three-part “Hommage à Iparterv” series was organized in the Fészek Gallery by Lóránd Hegyi.

Opening of the exhibition – radio action (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

Opening of the exhibition (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

Opening of the exhibition (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

The interior with György Jovánovics and István Nádler (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

The exhibition (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

The exhibition (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

The exhibition (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

The exhibition (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

György Jovánovics’s sculpture in his studio
before the exhibition. Photo: András Baranyai (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

Event in the garden of Miklós Erdély with the sculpture of György Jovánovics. Photo: György Erdély (courtesy of György Erdély and György Jovánovics)

Event in the garden of Miklós Erdély with the sculpture of György Jovánovics. Photo: György Erdély (courtesy of György Erdély and György Jovánovics)

Event in the garden of Miklós Erdély with the sculpture of György Jovánovics. Photo: György Erdély (courtesy of György Erdély and György Jovánovics)

Design by György Jovánovics for his page in the catalog Hungarian Artists (Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, 1972), for which he used a photograph taken at the opening (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

Design by György Jovánovics for his page in the catalog Hungarian Artists (Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, 1972), for which he used a photograph taken at the opening (courtesy of György Jovánovics)

Invitation leaflet of György Jovánovics’s lecture, “The Best Work of My Life”
(courtesy of György Jovánovics)

Date: 15 March 1970

Participants: György Jovánovics (1939), István Nádler (1938)

Opening action with János Frank (1925 – 2004)

Location: Adolf Fényes Hall, Budapest

The Adolf Fényes Hall was a gallery offered for the presentation of tendencies that were not supported but tolerated by the official cultural politics. In addition to István Nádler’s geometric paintings György Jovánovics exhibited ahuge plaster sculpture, whose shape was repeating to the ground plan of the gallery. The exhibition was opened by a fictive radio program that – after the most important international news of the day reported on the exhibition itself . After the exhibition, Jovánovics transported the work to Miklós Erdély’s garden, where the sculpture became the setting for a number of spontaneous events, some of which were documented in photographs. Later Jovánovics called this work, more precisely the opening “the best work of my life” in a lecture reconstructing the event held in Artpool Art Research Center. In the 1980s it also inspired János Sugár (1958) to make an exhibition and shoot a film in the same location.

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

Still from the film Pseudo (director: János Gulyás, 1970,
13’ graduation film, Hungarian Film Academy)

The exhibition. Photo: János
Gulyás (courtesy of János Gulyás)

The exhibition. Photo: János
Gulyás (courtesy of János Gulyás)

Date: 3 October 1970

Participant: Gyula Pauer (1941)

Location: József Attila Culture House, Budapest

Gyula Pauer’s two day exhibition could be realized in an off-site culture house as scenery for János Gulyás’s graduation film at the Hungarian Academy of Theatre and Film. The reporter, Géza Perneczky, art historian and artist, interviewed the audience, critics and the artist at the opening.

The room’s walls, ceiling and floor was covered with plastic foil that was spray-painted in a folded state. Gyula Pauer’s First Pseudo Manifesto was distributed as a flyer during the opening.

The poster of the banned Avant-Garde festival planned at the Bercsényi Club, Budapest, April, 1972 (courtesy of Artpool Art Research Centre)

Call for the Direct Week (courtesy of Tamás St.Auby)

Visitors sleeping in the Chapel during the
Direct Week. The work Conflagration Mock Up by Tamás Szentjóby can be seen in the background.
Photo: György Galántai (courtesy of Artpool
Art Research Centre)

Gyula Pauer: Marx-Lenin, 1971. It was exhibited as a leaflet with the cut out contour
folded on the newspaper clipping so that the visitors could open it. (courtesy of the heirs of Gyula Pauer and Artpool Art Research Centre)

Gyula Pauer: Marx-Lenin, 1971. It was exhibited as a leaflet with the cut out contour
folded on the newspaper clipping so that the visitors could open it.
(courtesy of the heirs of Gyula Pauer and Artpool Art Research Centre)

Direct Week was an exhibition and event series that incorporated works and actions replying to Pauer’s and Szentjóby’s call, as well as lectures and screenings that were originally in the program of the “Avantgarde Festival” planned in April in a Budapest Club, but banned shortly before its scheduled date.

This exhibition – presented two months before the Chapel Studio was occupied and closed by the police – did not have any title and was completed spontaneously with works and actions during two weeks. The works exhibited were used as props for theatrical performances in the next few weeks.

Photo of the action. Photo: Júlia Veres (courtesy of Artpool
Art Research Center)

Photo of the action. Photo: Júlia Veres (courtesy of Artpool
Art Research Center)

Photo of the action. Photo: Júlia Veres (courtesy of Artpool
Art Research Center)

Miklós Haraszti’s entry
in the guest book
(courtesy of Artpool
Art Research Center)

Date: 21 July 1973

Participant: Tibor Hajas (1946-1980)

Location: Chapel Studio of György Galántai, Balatonboglár

The text was read as part of an action performed in the Chapel Studio in Balatonboglár in 1973. While reading out the text Hajas tied the audience together, then burned the ropes according to a guestbook entry.

The last exhibition of Erzsébet Schaár was accompanied by a catalog containing the poems of János Pilinszky coupled with the art pieces, next to which they were read out at the opening. The process of building the exhibition and the opening was filmed by János Gulyás (1946). The installation was later displayed in Lucerne and then, finally, in Pécs, where the temporal styrofoam components of the sculptures were replaced with pieces made of concrete. Géza Perneczky writes about Schaár in his comprehensive essay about the Iparterv group and the Neo-Avant-Garde in Hungary.

Orsolya Drozdik – then member of the postconceptualist artist group, the Rózsa Circle (1976-77) – drew a female nude in the exhibition space for a week. The “exhibition” was opened every day by four different male artists and an art historian. The visitors were not allowed to enter the room where the artist and the model were working, but could only see them from the door which was covered by gauze. Emese Süvecz (curator) made oral history interviews with the participants to reconstruct the event.